September 24
1897 – Sylvanus Johnson was executed on gallows erected between the courthouse and jail in Key West’s Jackson Square. Johnson, an African American, was convicted of raping a white woman.
1914 – The schooner Etta Thompson arrived at Key West from the Dry Tortugas with the crew from the Boston Iron and Metal Company. The men had been gathering old iron, copper, and lead from abandoned structures on the remote islands, but they decided to pause their work until after the stormy season.
1923 – The legendary jazz trumpeter Theodore “Fats” Navarro Jr. was born at 828 Thomas Street in Key West.
1957 – Key Colony Beach became the second city in Monroe County when, at a town hall meeting, the community’s 11 qualified voters approved incorporation.
1986 – Key West city commissioners heard a proposal by the Audubon Society to purchase 10.7 acres of “the last hardwood parcel on the island” bordering the Riviera Canal and the abandoned Hawk Missile Battery. It was hoped the land would remain in its natural state.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: An aerial view of Key Colony Beach in the late 1950s. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
